


A review of the history of the Akallabêth

by Raaf



Series: Meta Analyses [1]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Character Analysis, Essays, Plot analysis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:22:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26461870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raaf/pseuds/Raaf
Summary: A meta comparing the alternate version of Pharazôn, Míriel and their marriage in Histories of Middle-earth vol 12, to the version published in Silmarillion.Aka, I read everything Tolkien wrote about Tar-Míriel for my fanfic on her, and came out of it with strong opinions ;)
Relationships: Ar-Pharazon/Tar-Miriel, Ar-Pharazôn & Amandil (Tolkien)
Series: Meta Analyses [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923727
Comments: 5
Kudos: 15





	1. Issues of Pharazôn's usurpation plotline

The marriage of Pharazôn and Míriel, and how Pharazôn became King of Númenor, was one of the subjects that Tolkien never resolved to his satisfaction. He experimented with many different approaches over the various drafts of the Akallabêth. It is easy to see why Tolkien was still tinkering with the story, because the version Christopher Tolkien used has several logical issues which are addressed in the newer drafts.

In the oldest version of Akallabêth, The Lost Road, Kalion (Pharazôn’s older/Quenya name) and Ilien (Míriel’s older name) are just the King and Queen of Númenor without anything untoward going on in regards to their marriage or Kalion not being the rightful King. In the next version, which C Tolkien later used for the published Silmarillion, Pharazôn is a usurper who forced Míriel to marry him. Tolkien reconsidered that aspect and worked on alternate versions, which was published in Histories of Middle-earth as texts a, b and c. There is also another passage where Tolkien seems to have returned to the usurpation version.

We sadly don’t have a clear picture how the alternate version went. Tolkien was unfortunately in very unclear in his handwriting when he wrote down the drafts a and b, and large parts of it were illegible to Christopher Tolkien, and draft c stops just after the beginning. The salient details that can be made out from the a, b and c version is that Pharazôn was close to Amandil’s family and he and Míriel were both frequent visitors to them, and that Míriel and Pharazôn met and fell in love during such a visit. It is unfortunate that Tolkien never made a polished version of that storyline and that C Tolkien excluded all the details from them when he edited the Silmarillion version.

In the Silmarillion version, the usurpation itself is plausible. Tar-Palantir was an extremely unpopular King, it is not surprising that his throne was usurped away from his daughter by his very popular and successful military leader nephew. Pharazôn’s method, a forced marriage to the rightful Queen, makes much less sense.

Pharazôn does not actually need to marry Míriel to legitimize seizing the scepter. He is Tar-Palantir’s nephew; he is already in line for the throne, he only needs to make Míriel no longer be ahead of him in the succession. Pressuring Míriel into abdicating the throne to him has to be a much easier sell for him than pressuring Míriel into marrying him. Especially since abdications have a lot of legal precedent in Númenor and marrying your first cousin was not at all legal.

Míriel abdicating makes far more sense as a fig leaf to justify Pharazôn taking over. Kings/Queens in Númenor used to be expected to abdicate to their heir when they became old. We also have an example of a King abdicating immediately after he was crowned, namely Tar-Vardamir, and a King abdicating earlier because he thought his heir would handle the situation better, namely Tar-Meneldur. The only advantage that marrying Míriel gives Pharazôn, is that her heirs won’t be able to dispute his position.

Míriel’s heirs are not much of a danger to him either. She does not have any, and if Pharazôn has enough leverage over her to force her to marry him and/or to take her throne, then it is unlikely he wouldn’t be able to prevent her from marrying someone else. Númenor law even has a “handy” provision for female heirs so that they have an option to refuse the Heirship instead of getting it by default (from "Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner's Wife"). All Pharazôn has to do is get that invoked, then Míriel and any hypothetical heirs she has are no longer a problem for him and he is the legal King of Númenor.

A forced marriage also creates problems for Pharazôn. It is not good for his legitimacy to base his legality as King on an illegal marriage. Nor does it make him less of an usurper. Tar-Vanimeldë’s husband took over the throne after she died, but, despite trying to claim the title, he didn’t get recorded as a King because he was considered an usurper for doing that. Legally speaking, marrying Míriel just makes Pharazôn the husband of the Ruling Queen and he still isn’t allowed to rule in his own name. It would also most likely reduce Pharazôn’s popularity. ‘Forced my cousin into an illegal, incestuous marriage’ is not going to go over well with the people, even among those who prefer his politics. All in all, marrying Míriel does not make sense for his goal.

We could explain this by assuming that usurping the throne and marrying Míriel are separate motivations. If Pharazôn has one-sided feelings for Míriel, then it makes sense that he would take advantage of his usurpation to get her to agree to marry him rather than completely losing her throne. Even with that assumption, however, there are still some issues remaining in terms of the other characters' behaviour.

The role of Amandil and the Faithful is also very strange in the context of Pharazôn being an usurper. Amandil is still an important Lord and on the council when Pharazôn is King. If Amandil was backing Míriel when Pharazôn usurped the throne, then why did he not face any consequences from losing? Not only that, Pharazôn still likes him and keeps him in a position of trust (before Sauron interfered). It reflects very badly on Amandil if he did absolutely nothing to support his rightful Queen and then stayed close to her usurper, and does not fit with the rest of his character. Neither does it make sense that the Faithful are conflicted about their loyalties and unwilling to commit treason when Ar-Pharazôn is a usurper they have no reason to feel loyal to in the first place. They have a rightful Queen to rally around and no reason to cooperate with Pharazôn, so why do they acknowledge Pharazôn as King?

All of these issues are fixed in the HoME version. Pharazôn and Míriel are in love, giving them a reason to deal with the consequences of breaking the law to get married. People are unhappy about Pharazôn and Míriel’s marriage being illegal, but, between the two of them, they are powerful enough to get away with it regardless. Amandil and the Faithful accepting Ar-Pharazôn’s authority as legitimate makes much more sense when he isn’t an usurper and it is legitimate. All of the objections I have seen against this version revolves around the implications for Míriel’s character, which is a more subjective topic and is covered in the next section.


	2. HoME Míriel's characterization

The other thing to consider between the Silmarillion and HoME versions, is the narrative impact. This is obviously going to be judged more by personal preference than a logical dispute, so keep in mind this is intended to be my own opinion.

One issue, and the primary one I have seen people object to, with Míriel choosing to marry Pharazôn, is that it reflects badly on her. If Míriel agrees to let Pharazôn take her throne, then it makes her look weak-willed. If Míriel is partially responsible for enabling all the immoral acts Pharazôn did as King, then she looks complicit with his crimes instead of being another one of his victims. Ironically, the extra moral ambiguity for Míriel is part of the reason I prefer this version. It makes her not escaping the Downfall with the rest of the Faithful feel slightly less horrifically unfair.

Pharazôn taking the throne is a bit more complicated than Míriel just side-lining herself, however. In all versions, Míriel/Zimraphel is officially Tar-Míriel/Ar-Zimraphel. She retains her rightful title conferred on the King/Ruling Queen, which we never saw a Queen-consort use. This applies even in the versions where she was outright usurped. At least nominally, Míriel keeps holding authority in her own right beyond Pharazôn. She doesn’t lose that much authority by siding with Pharazôn, and she gains more from a political alliance with someone much more popular. It’s a pragmatic decision for the heir of an unpopular King, whose country either had a borderline civil war or an actual one (depending on sources used), to take. 

According to draft a (note mine): “And when they were wedded she yielded the sceptre to Pharazôn, and he sat upon the throne of Elros in the name of Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, but she retained also her title as hers by right, and was called Ar-Zimrahil [earlier version of Zimraphel].”

So Pharazôn has the most authority, but they are titled as equals instead of Míriel just abdicating, and you could also take that to mean they are technically co-rulers. We don’t know how it happened in draft b, but their relationship there starts much more overtly romantic and equal between them than in draft a. It’s speculative, but I think it’s a fair interpretation to make the draft b version involve them just being official co-rulers.

In the Silmarillion version, Míriel has a single mention about how she was usurped, spends the entire rest of the story doing absolutely nothing, then we see her futilely trying to escape the downfall and dying on page instead of being saved with the rest of the Faithful. That is deeply unsatisfying as a narrative.

In the HoME version, Míriel actually exists as a character. She gets some description about how she looks beyond just being beautiful, and some idea about her personality is established. She also makes decisions and moves the plot. Sure, she makes mistakes, but they are understandable ones, and that is much better narratively than her being a saintly nonentity.

I think it is harsh to condemn Míriel for doing the pragmatic political move and siding with Pharazôn. It can’t have been easy for her to watch her father spend his whole reign on a completely unsuccessful attempt to revive the Faithful ideals and then be expected to keep that up in the face of an increasingly rebellious kingdom. Maybe fearlessly sticking to her ideals was the most moral thing to do, but be honest, would you have done a better job than her in those circumstances? At worst, she made a bigger compromise to practicality than she should have. She can’t be blamed, after all, for not expecting Sauron to end up in Númenor and corrupt Pharazôn.

In terms of the moral issues of marrying Pharazôn, he seems to have been a relatively decent man before power went to his head. In the HoME versions that is explicit (note mine again): “indeed in his [Pharazon’s] youth was not unlike the Edain of old in mind also”. Miriel wasn’t necessarily being foolish by wanting to marry him at the time, and she couldn’t divorce him when he afterwards started pulling monumentally bad moves like listening to Sauron. Míriel doesn’t stop Sauron’s corruption, but to be fair, neither does Amandil or any of the other Faithful. Míriel can be interpreted to still be saintly, and that she simply did not have the popular support to act against Sauron’s influence. She could also be interpreted to have listened to Sauron with Pharazôn, depending on how morally ambiguous you want her to be. Either way, it leaves a lot more space for writing Míriel with complexity.

Ultimately, this version makes it feel tragic that Pharazôn and Númenor become corrupted into evil, instead of the situation being a lost cause even before Sauron arrives.


End file.
